Consumer Perception on Ethics of Using Children in Advertising

Market is crowded place and the commercial organization need to work towards getting the attention of the consumers. This has led to a focus on the emotions of consumers in the marketing promotions and the route used is using children. This study is to look at the research problem of ethical issues in use of children in marketing promotion by commercial organization by looking at ethics from the benefit and cost factors perspectives. The study focused on advertising in print and television. The study approach is descriptive and the respondents have been taken from six administrative divisions towns of state of Maharashtra and are tax payers. The responses were taken through a questionnaire. The Objectives of Study: To understand the conceptual bases of marketing promotion ethics and study the benefit and cost of using children in marketing promotion. This was identified by conducting factor analysis, chi sq. test for comparing responses for benefit and cost and testing their independence. Hypotheses for the Study: There is no significant relationship between responses on benefit and cost of using children in marketing promotion. The findings indicated that respondents overall see more benefits of using children in marketing promotion with benefit responses being more in favor than cost. The finding identified benefit and cost factors for considerations by consumers and clearly indicated that there is no relationship between benefit and cost factor responses. Study identified that there is a need for strong regulatory mechanism. The study has direct benefit to marketers as it provides a template for creation of promotional campaigns using children.